Wood

"He left? Already? Is he an idiot?"

"They only have three hours left, what choice did he have?" A laughing voice responded.

The location was Village 0012 within a cabin built much larger than most of the others around it. Though, the craftsmanship was shoddy. It was clear that the original cabin had been built much smaller before its owner grew more confident and began to put in additional add-ons.

"There's no use in rushing if you're just going off to your death. At this point, we might as well not even waste our time. He'll get himself killed. I don't know how he accustomed himself to the Anarchic Force so quickly, but the concentration here and the concentration in the forest are on two completely different levels."

Within the cabin, two young men sat. They seemed like oddly matched mirror images of one another. The look might have been absolutely perfect had it not been for the fact they wore the exact same uniform everyone else did.

One had a head of white hair and black eyes while the other had a head of black hair and white eyes. The former had skin as dark as night while the latter had skin as bright as day. However, maybe the most interesting thing about them was that their features were identical down to the individual strands of hair on their head and up to the slight slant of their smiles.

These two were from a very prominent family of the Seventh Dimension, the Libra family. If this family were to be put on a scale of one to ten, where one would be the weakest families of the Seventh Dimension and ten would be the strongest, they would likely fall between seven and eight. Simply put, having disciples enter the Void Palace wasn't rare for them in the slightest, and this was especially so with a pair like these two.

The white haired and dark skinned brother, Huon. The black haired and light skinned brother, Droet.

The two had obviously planned to do something to Leonel if for nothing other than to whittle down the competition a bit more. However, it was also clear that they felt that Leonel was unworthy of the emphasis they were going to give him judging by his choices alone.

The truth was that the only ones still scrambling around and trying to drudge up Void Points now were those who were at the bottom of the totem pole to begin with. Those who were confident in themselves were resting and waiting for the three hour limit to be completed.

Knowing that, if Leonel wasn't a threat, why would they waste their time risking their peak condition for the coming True Selection. It was best if they save their resources and strength.

At that moment, though, an unexpected knock came from the door.

The two brothers met each other's gaze before putting up their guards. Just because they didn't see Leonel as a threat, didn't mean that there would be other threats to watch out for.

When they finally did open the door, though, the person they found was Orinik. And, when they heard what he had to say, the sly and slanted smiles of the two brothers only deepened.

**

Leonel had already deduced what he had to do. As annoying as Ossenna was, she had still managed to leave him behind a clue: build your own cabin.

The obvious question to ask to such a task was how? Obviously, this 'how' didn't refer to the logistics of the actual matter, but rather in the more auxiliary matters. For example, where would he build it? Was anywhere fine? And then, the most important of the auxiliary questions… Where would he find the wood to do so?

Leonel didn't know for certain, but he had an educated guess as to two places. The first was the most obvious, and that was beyond the wall of black logs. The second was more subtle but still required going beyond the walls regardless, and that was to exchange Void Points for the wood he needed.

As Leonel fell from the top of the walls, he realized that his conjectures were correct. Or, at the very least, the first was.

The first thing he saw was a vast cloud of fog. As far as the eye could see, this fog covered everything.

The second thing Leonel saw were the tree tops and tree canopies that just barely managed to peek out above the dome of fog. The trees closer to the village were much smaller than the hundred meter tall longs used to construct the walls, but those further only became taller and taller to the point they rivaled mountains all to their own.

These trees, though, were all made of greatly resistant materials and were likely the very wood that made up so many of the cabins.

With a WHOOSH! Leonel shot through the dome of fog, leaving behind a small hole that was quickly enveloped from all sides. But, the moment he did so, his pupils constricted.

Right then, Leonel's clothing burst into a cloud of ash. The concentration of Anarchic Force was at least double here, and though that still left it in the parts per several billion range, it was more than enough to leave Leonel streaking naked in the nude.

With a heavy stomp, Leonel landed on the ground below, his knees instantly suffering from a severe jolt. The ground gave him no leeway whatsoever, causing all the shock to transfer up his bones. If it wasn't for the sturdiness of his body, he would have probably suffered a fracture or two.

'… Have to adjust to this world. Should have used a movement technique to slow myself down.'

Leonel made a mental note and calculated everything in his mind. After a moment, he felt he understood his limits, at least in this form.

Leonel took a step forward after the jolt of shock waned and pressed a palm to the nearest tree. That creature that had attacked earlier was likely still close by, so he didn't want to stay in a single spot for too long. But, he needed to understand this before he moved on.

'This tree is…'

Leonel understood at that point that he was definitely correct, there had to be another method to trade for this wood. Let alone the difficulty in cutting a tree like this down, just the idea of trying to hoist it over the hundred meter tall wall was a daunting task even for him.

At that moment, Leonel's gaze suddenly narrowed. Belongs to (N)ôvel/Drama.Org.

'It's coming, it's already locked onto me?'